Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
Ephesians 6:1-3 “Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father
and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may
be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’”
God
is a parent/child kind of person. He is in complete support of the
relationship between a child and their mother and father. After all, God
is a Father and a Son! Remember? God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit - three-in-one? If He is Father and Son, and we are
made in His image, what should that say about our own relationships
with our parents?
The first thing you should realize is that the fifth commandment doesn’t even mention obedience.
It says to honor your father and mother. God is most interested in your
attitude towards them. Honor goes much further than mere obedience - it
deals with our heart. Honoring your parents means to respect them, to
have a high regard for them, and to highly value them. This is the
attitude God wants His people to have toward their parents.
Ephesians
6:1 tells christian children to obey their parents in the Lord. This
means that as long as their parents aren’t telling them to disobey God’s
Word, they should obey. Obedience to parents is required for as long as
a child is under their authority. When a child grows up and leaves the
home, the command to obey is no longer binding on them. But notice this,
the command to honor has no age limit!
Even
grown-ups are commanded by God to honor their father and mother. This
attitude of respect and esteem should continue from childhood into adult
years. Even after one’s parents have passed on, their memory should be
honored and respected.
How
important is this attitude of honor to God? Extremely! Even though it
is the fifth commandment, it is the first to have a promise attached to
it. The promise is this: “that it may go well with you and you may live long on the earth.” This is a concrete promise from God; if you honor your father and your mother, you will
have a long, good life! Count on this: if things aren’t going so well
for you - the first thing you should examine is your attitude and
respect for your parents!
Now,
this gets a little delicate in some situations. What if parents aren’t
deserving of honor? What if a parent was abusive, neglectful, or
hurtful? What should we do when we’re commanded to give something that
isn’t deserved? All too often, adults are still struggling with what
their parents did or didn’t do for them as a child. Even after the
parents are dead and gone, those wounds can still fester. Surely God
doesn’t expect honor in these situations, right?
Wrong. It is true that God’s command to obey our parents has a condition attached (“in the Lord”).
But His command to honor our parents has no conditions on it. He told
us to honor them, whether they deserve it or not. But when you think
about it, this unconditional honor isn’t anything new. After all, God
loved us when we didn’t deserve it - right? Doesn’t He command us to
love each other - unconditionally? Even His command for us to forgive
others has no strings attached to it. We’re just told to do it! So why
would it be surprising for God to command honor towards parents, whether
it’s deserved or not? You see, God is far more interested in our
obedience from the heart than He is about whether someone deserves your
honor (or love, or forgiveness).
So
how do we honor a parent that doesn’t deserve it? You honor them by
releasing the pain they’ve caused. You honor them by giving them the
respect of a parent. You honor them by forgiving them of the wrongs they
have done. You honor them by letting go of any hurt they may have
caused. And you honor them by praying for them.
Of course it’s not easy. Not a single one of the ten commandments are easy. If we could do it on our own, then we wouldn’t have needed salvation! But, through the amazing, empowering grace of God we can receive the strength we need to obey this command from the heart.
Showing posts with label blessing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blessing. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Everyone Has A Place
(If you want to read more on this subject - check out this post too!)
Proverbs 27:8 “Like a bird that wanders from its nest Is a man who wanders from his place.”
Everyone has a place. It’s the place you’re designed to be - the place God calls you to be. It’s where you’ll find you’re greatest fulfillment. It’s where God expects you to be when He wants to use you. It’s the spot where you can be the greatest blessing to Heaven and humanity. It’s the place you belong.
Jacob found that place in Genesis 28:11 - it was first called the “certain place.” Later, Jacob realized that place was where God was. “Surely Yahweh is in this place and I didn’t know it!...How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God! This is the gate of Heaven!” Jacob found out that his place was Bethel - the house of God!
Later in life, Jacob was aimless and without direction. He just experienced a family tragedy. His only daughter was raped and his sons massacred the whole town where her rapist lived. Now Jacob feared for his life! He was feeling down, depressed, probably doubting the promise God had made to him. What was God’s answer for him? Genesis 35:1 “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there...” God’s response was to send him back to the place he started; that certain place, the awesome place, the house of God!
About 450 years later, after God had brought Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt, He gave them almost the same command. In Deuteronomy 12:2 God describes how the nations in Canaan were worshipping on every hill and under every tree - wherever they felt like. In verses 5-7 He says, “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.”
God declared that there was one place where He called His people to worship Him - and that’s where they would receive His blessing.
David understood this. When he was running from Jerusalem, from his son Absalom, The priests were going to carry the Ark of the Covenant with him. David stopped them and said, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place.” David knew that it was his responsibility to go to that set place - he couldn’t move it around with him!
When David’s son Solomon built the first temple, that was where God set His place. That was the place God picked to meet with His people. After the dedication, God met with Solomon and said, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.”
Can you see that it has always been God’s plan to emphasize certain places? For Jacob, it was Bethel. For Israel, it was the tabernacle and then the temple. But this place is always called “the house of God.”
Fast forward to the New Testament. Now we have believers who claim that they don’t have the responsibility to go anywhere. But we see in Hebrews 10:25 that we’re still called to assemble together. 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us where we’re supposed to do this - “in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” God still has a place where He calls His people to come to Him - the church!
There is a place for you. You were never called to be a loner or a spiritual floater. You were called to be rooted in God’s house! You need to send those roots deep. You need to decide right now that nothing (no offense, no lure of the world, and no trap of the enemy) can ever pull you out of your place! Here’s why: Psalm 133 says that God commands His blessing to a certain place - where brothers dwell together in unity!
Have you found your place yet?
Proverbs 27:8 “Like a bird that wanders from its nest Is a man who wanders from his place.”
Everyone has a place. It’s the place you’re designed to be - the place God calls you to be. It’s where you’ll find you’re greatest fulfillment. It’s where God expects you to be when He wants to use you. It’s the spot where you can be the greatest blessing to Heaven and humanity. It’s the place you belong.
Jacob found that place in Genesis 28:11 - it was first called the “certain place.” Later, Jacob realized that place was where God was. “Surely Yahweh is in this place and I didn’t know it!...How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God! This is the gate of Heaven!” Jacob found out that his place was Bethel - the house of God!
Later in life, Jacob was aimless and without direction. He just experienced a family tragedy. His only daughter was raped and his sons massacred the whole town where her rapist lived. Now Jacob feared for his life! He was feeling down, depressed, probably doubting the promise God had made to him. What was God’s answer for him? Genesis 35:1 “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there...” God’s response was to send him back to the place he started; that certain place, the awesome place, the house of God!
About 450 years later, after God had brought Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt, He gave them almost the same command. In Deuteronomy 12:2 God describes how the nations in Canaan were worshipping on every hill and under every tree - wherever they felt like. In verses 5-7 He says, “But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.”
God declared that there was one place where He called His people to worship Him - and that’s where they would receive His blessing.
David understood this. When he was running from Jerusalem, from his son Absalom, The priests were going to carry the Ark of the Covenant with him. David stopped them and said, “Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place.” David knew that it was his responsibility to go to that set place - he couldn’t move it around with him!
When David’s son Solomon built the first temple, that was where God set His place. That was the place God picked to meet with His people. After the dedication, God met with Solomon and said, “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually.”
Can you see that it has always been God’s plan to emphasize certain places? For Jacob, it was Bethel. For Israel, it was the tabernacle and then the temple. But this place is always called “the house of God.”
Fast forward to the New Testament. Now we have believers who claim that they don’t have the responsibility to go anywhere. But we see in Hebrews 10:25 that we’re still called to assemble together. 1 Timothy 3:15 tells us where we’re supposed to do this - “in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” God still has a place where He calls His people to come to Him - the church!
There is a place for you. You were never called to be a loner or a spiritual floater. You were called to be rooted in God’s house! You need to send those roots deep. You need to decide right now that nothing (no offense, no lure of the world, and no trap of the enemy) can ever pull you out of your place! Here’s why: Psalm 133 says that God commands His blessing to a certain place - where brothers dwell together in unity!
Have you found your place yet?
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